The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. It combines a surface array to measure secondary particles at ground level together with a fluorescence detector to measure the development of air showers in the atmosphere above the array. The fluorescence detector comprises 24 large telescopes specialized for measuring the nitrogen fluorescence caused by charged particles of cosmic ray air showers. In this paper we describe the components of the fluorescence detector including its optical system, the design of the camera, the electronics, and the systems for relative and absolute calibration. We also discuss the operation and the monitoring of the detector. Finally, we evaluate the detector performance and precision of shower reconstructions.Comment: 53 pages. Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section

Probiotics-addicted low-protein diet for microbiota modulation in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (ProLowCKD): A protocol of placebo-controlled randomized trial

Abstract Microbiota is a term coined to describe the population of bacteria, viruses and fungi that inhabit in symbiosis within a living host. A connection between unbalanced microbiota and chronic kidney disease has been established. In these patients, high levels of urea reach the intestine promoting the overgrowth of bacterial species that are prone to generate uremic toxins. Due to the high morbidity and mortality of this condition, a large number of therapeutic approaches to reduce inflammation and microbial uremic toxins have been proposed, with controversial results. A low protein diet, with a protein intake of 0.6–0.8 g/kg of body weight, is a useful and historically pursued option with this regard. The aim of our study is to evaluate, among patients with advanced renal failure not on dialysis, the synergic beneficial effects of this diet and the selected probiotics Bifidobacterium longum (mix DLBL) and Lactobacillus reuteri LRE02 (DSM 23878)

A Deployment of Fine-Grained Sensor Network and Empirical Analysis of Urban Temperature

Temperature in an urban area exhibits a complicated pattern due to complexity of infrastructure. Despite geographical proximity, structures of a group of buildings and streets affect changes in temperature. To investigate the pattern of fine-grained distribution of temperature, we installed a densely distributed sensor network called UScan. In this paper, we describe the system architecture of UScan as well as experience learned from installing 200 sensors in downtown Tokyo. The field experiment of UScan system operated for two months to collect long-term urban temperature data. To analyze the collected data in an efficient manner, we propose a lightweight clustering methodology to study the correlation between the pattern of temperature and various environmental factors including the amount of sunshine, the width of streets, and the existence of trees. The analysis reveals meaningful results and asserts the necessity of fine-grained deployment of sensors in an urban area

Multi Medical Data Visualizations for Maintaining Wireless Body Networks (WBNs) Capability

The current progress on the study of wireless body networks (WBNs) has gained tremendous achievements to be applied in various modern e-Health technologies. The manuscript examines a typical WBN configuration incorporated with the corresponding multi-medical data visualization window to maintain the patient medical data recording. Several numbers of the basic time-series data visualization approaches are adopted. The WBN was constructed to operate at 2.4 GHz ISM unlicensed band. The utilization of the designed WBN allows the physician or authorized health officers to perform routine health checks, anytime and anywhere, to a patient who is in the intensive health care status. The e-Health monitoring network is very suitable to place in the ICU/emergency rooms or it can be used by patients who are under regular treatment from a remote location. One unit WBN can be connected to the multi medical sensors of the different functions such as an ECG sensor to measure heart rate; a pulse sensor to measure the blood pressure; a temperature LM35DZ sensor to collect the human body temperature; a respiration sensor to measure the patient's breath and a video camera to observe the patient physical condition. An extensive evaluation of the designed WBN will be discussed more detailed later

Role and rationale for the use of milnacipran in the management of fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex syndrome characterized by chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain which is often accompanied by multiple other symptoms, including fatigue, sleep disturbances, decreased physical functioning, and dyscognition. Due to these multiple symptoms, as well as high rates of comorbidity with other related disorders, patients with FM often report a reduced quality of life. Although the pathophysiology of FM is not completely understood, patients with FM experience pain differently from the general population, most likely due to dysfunctional pain processing in the central nervous system leading to both hyperalgesia and allodynia. In many patients with FM, this aberrant pain processing, or central sensitization, appears to involve decreased pain inhibition within the spinal tract, which is mediated by descending pathways that utilize serotonin, norepinephrine, and other neurotransmitters. The reduced serotonin and norepinephrine levels observed in patients with FM suggest that medications which increase the levels of these neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), may have clinically beneficial effects in FM and other chronic pain conditions. Milnacipran is an SNRI that has been approved for the management of FM. In clinical trials, treatment with milnacipran for up to 1 year has been found to improve the pain and other symptoms of FM. Because FM is characterized by multiple symptoms that all contribute to the decreased quality of life and ability to function, the milnacipran pivotal trials implemented responder analyses. These utilized a single composite endpoint to identify the proportion of patients who reported simultaneous and clinically significant improvements in pain, global disease status, and physical function. Other domains assessed during the milnacipran trials include fatigue, multidimensional functioning, mood, sleep quality, and patient-reported dyscognition. This review article provides information intended to help clinicians make informed decisions about the use of milnacipran in the clinical management of patients with FM. It draws primarily on results from 2 of the pivotal clinical trials that formed the basis of approval of milnacipran in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration

Morphological and reproductive trait-variability of a food deceptive orchid, Cephalanthera rubra along different altitudes

As climate change is forcing plant species to migrate northward and upward, it is important to know how species' vegetative traits and reproductive success vary along different climatic conditions. We aimed to examine the impact of elevation on the morphological and reproductive characteristics of Cephalanthera rubra in four different altitudes in Hungary: in a lowland oak forest (103 m), and in the beech forests of the Bükk-mountains (361 m, 533 m, 657 m). We counted the number of leaves, flowers, and fruits, and measured the height of each plant with the length and width of all leaves. Linear, negative binomial, and quasipoisson regressions were used to compare the populations. Our study has shown that the lowland and mountain populations of C. rubra are sharply different regarding their life history strategy and reproductive success, and altitudinal effects can be found only in the mountain populations. The number of flowers depends strongly on the vegetative production (height and leaf area) of the plants, but at the same time, the area that facilitates greater vegetative production-possibly because it also facilitates species with better competitiveness, and it is less favorable to its mimicked partners-were less beneficial in terms of fruit production

The fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for ultra-high energy cosmicrays. It combines a surface array to measure secondary particles at ground level together with a fluorescence detector to measure the development of airshowers in the atmosphere above the array. The fluorescence detector comprises 24 large telescopes specialized for measuring the nitrogen fluorescence caused by charged particles of cosmic ray airshowers. In this paper we describe the components of the fluorescence detector including its optical system, the design of the camera, the electronics, and the systems for relative and absolute calibration. We also discuss the operation and the monitoring of the detector. Finally, we evaluate the detector performance and precision of shower reconstructions.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

The fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for ultra-high energy cosmicrays. It combines a surface array to measure secondary particles at ground level together with a fluorescence detector to measure the development of airshowers in the atmosphere above the array. The fluorescence detector comprises 24 large telescopes specialized for measuring the nitrogen fluorescence caused by charged particles of cosmic ray airshowers. In this paper we describe the components of the fluorescence detector including its optical system, the design of the camera, the electronics, and the systems for relative and absolute calibration. We also discuss the operation and the monitoring of the detector. Finally, we evaluate the detector performance and precision of shower reconstructions.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

EXPLORING THE STAGES OF INFORMATION SEEKING IN A CROSS-MODAL CONTEXT

Previous studies of users with visual impairments access to the web have focused on human-web interaction. This study explores the under investigated area of cross-modal collaborative information seeking (CCIS), that is, the challenges and opportunities that exist in supporting visually impaired (VI) users to take an effective part in collaborative web search tasks with sighted peers. We conducted an observational study to investigate the process with fourteen pairs of VI and sighted users in co-located and distributed settings. The study examined the effects of cross-modal collaborative interaction on the stages of the individual Information Seeking (IS) process. The findings showed that the different stages of the process were performed individually most of the time; however it was observed that some collaboration took place in the results exploration and management stages. The accessibility challenges faced by VI users affected their individual and collaborative interaction and also enforced certain points of collaboration. The paper concludes with some recommendations towards improving the accessibility of cross-modal collaborative search.Peer Reviewe